Christmas Countdown

First it was Halloween that whizzed by me so darn fast it left me in a tailspin and with literal dried fake blood drying on my chin (from the costume. You know.). Then it was Thanksgiving, which was a blur of raw turkey and vegetable stock and simmering cranberries, mixed together with a helping of bittersweet family drama and a climatic coloring contest. ("I'm gonna win!" My mother would sing-song. "Stop it, Tia!" exclaimed one of my young cousins. "You're making me nervous!")

And now we move on to Christmas, and I feel like I've barely taken a breath! But Christmas remains my favorite time of the year, and this time, I'm determined to actually put some thought into my Christmas mix and not let it pass me by like I did the Halloween mix.

I've discovered that life just has no 'hold' or 'pause' button and while it's exhilarating, it's also a little exhausting!

Notable Things of the Last Few Week:

1. "The Grinch" at the Pantages Theater - Eh. It was cute, but honestly as far as Grinch stories go, I preferred both the movie and the cartoon. The Grinch himself was hilarious, but he was clearly doing a Jim Carrey impersonation, and honestly, for 80 bucks a ticket, I would have rather had something a little stronger than what I saw. The music was forgettable (except for the two you already know), the jokes were silly, and the dog, usually my favorite part of the movie and the cartoon, rapidly began to annoy the crap out of me. So there you go.


2. Movies, Movies, Movies - Two really great ones, and one that had me just plain perplexed.
a: Everybody's Fine - youtube trailer
With Kate Beckinsale (PRETTY!), Drew Barrymore (PRETTY!), Sam Rockwell (...COOL!) and Robert Deniro. It was actually a very sweet movie about a widowed father who, when his grown children all cancel on him for a visit, decides to hop on trains and buses to surprise them one by one. Along the way, he discovers that his children are not as 'fine' as he thought they were, and that thanks to his demanding nature, have grown to lie to him about how things are in order not to worry him.

Enjoyable movie, if sad and bittersweet.

b: Precious - youtube trailer
What's sad is I grew up in the inner city in LA, and I knew plenty of kids like Precious. There are too many true life stories of kids with abusive families and no hope, and this movie really got to me in that sense. Definitely worth watching, even if sitting through it can be an uncomfortable experience.

c: Twilight -
Er... what? Yeah, I rented it. I finally got curious. And I just don't get it guys. I tried, I did. But OMG it made my brain hurt. This movie is like a sugared-up Harlequin romance for a preteen so I get why they would love it so but... yeah. I was bored silly. And honestly, nothing drives me more crazy than 'telling' and not 'showing' and so I really wanted to scratch my eyes out because I couldn't figure out WHY Edward and Bella loved each other so much. There was NOTHING there but 'she smells good' and he 'couldn't read her thoughts'. I need MORE. Plausibility! Please! Find a nugget of it and I'll latch on! It's all I need!

Coming up? A Christmas Masquerade at the Disneyland Hotel, and 'the Wedding Singer' in Irvine. Yes, the musical. Am I excited? Oh you have no idea.